on their own. the midwest would split off from new england. new york might set up as an independent free port. in other words, north america would turn into another europe, if you will. to understand that that's what the stakes were and to see this man who, as you say, led a party that had never governed before, who had no military experience, and yet had to create an army of a million men out of raw volunteers, to see him make that work and fight his way through it i think really brings to life this transition to greatness that lincoln was able to make. >> and you write in here, you know, it's not as if he didn't know the situation he was in. and you write in here about how lincoln was aware more than anyone of this, and he always liked to refer at the time to somebody that was popular, tight rope walker jean-francois grabolet, who had performed stunts over nigagara falls, pushing a wheel barrow, cooking an omelet and all these sorts of things. he knew he was sort of on this tight rope that one wrong move and it all goes wrong. >> you can see over and over again during this year, 1862, how l
